Sustainable tourism in practice – award-winning case studies

Poolsbrook Country Park Caravan Club Site is an award-winning example of sustainable best practice. Here we take a look at its approach to environmental issues and implementation of energy-saving features. Three short case studies also show the steps taken by several successful small tourism businesses to be more sustainable.

We hope these award-winning examples provide some practical pointers for improving your own sustainable performance.

Poolsbrook Country Park Site

The site, spread over five acres with 86 pitches, is located in the 165-acre Poolsbrook Country Park on the edge of Staveley, Derbyshire. It was developed on a brownfield site reclaimed from a former colliery, giving the Caravan Club free rein to design and implement a broad range of sustainable energy features.

With yearly increases in energy costs, the Caravan Club is charged with reducing costs through sustainable energy features. It also recognises that demonstrating a commitment to environmentally-friendly policies and practices has a recognised marketing and branding value, as more tourists become aware of the environmental consequences of their choices. Such tourists look for operators and products that offer genuine ‘green’ value as well as value for money.

The range of energy-saving measures and technologies adopted by the Caravan Club when designing Poolsbrook included the following.

The building design sought to minimise the need for artificial lighting by using sun pipes, extensive wall fenestration and conventional roof lights, and by roofing the central lobby with a glazed canopy. Solar heating panels on the roofs of the reception building and the toilet block preheat the water used in the site’s showers and washbasins. Photovoltaic panels on the roof of the reception building use the sun’s radiation to generate electric power, which is directly fed into the site mains panel and used for contributing to the site electrical base load. Electricity generated by the 1kW wind turbine supplements that from the photovoltaic panels during the day and contributes to the reception building at night. Low-energy light bulbs are fitted across the site, in the buildings and on mains hook-up bollards. In the toilet block daylight and presence-sensing controls on the lights further reduce energy consumption. Grey water from the toilet block’s showers and washbasins is used to supplement water used for flushing toilets. The grey water is treated with bromine for sterilisation and made up with potable (ie safe, treated) water before being fed down to WC cisterns. A heat recovery ventilation system recovers heat energy from the stale, damp air outgoing from the toilet block and transfers this energy to provide warm, clean incoming air at a steady 22ºC. This can also eliminate condensation and stuffiness. A ground source heat recovery system provides energy for controlled, ambient underfloor heating in the reception building and toilet block during daytime. The system exploits geothermal energy (the warmth of soil below the surface) as brine is passed through underground pipes to pick up heat. The heat energy is then transferred through a heat exchanger to a refrigeration unit, where a compressor and second exchanger transfer the energy to the heating circuit providing the underfloor heating.

Howard Adams, development manager at the Caravan Club says, 'We are monitoring all of the features that we’ve used on the site. There are sensors on all the ins and outs of the facilities to monitor what the energy saving is from those different features. We set that against what the original cost was and you get a payback, but what you also get is an overall energy saving… and that data collectively will allow us to look at what we will use in the future.'

The Poolsbrook Country Park Caravan Club Site has been commended in the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) East Midlands Awards 2009 in both Regeneration and Sustainability categories.

Deneholme

Deneholme is a 3-star accommodation and event venue in an Edwardian country house near Allendale, Northumberland. Deneholme was restored by Fawside, a community-run charity, which achieved a Green Tourism Business Scheme silver award.

Fawside tapped into available sustainable grant aid to:

upgrade the insulation using thermafleece sheep’s wool from locally farmed Herdwick sheep reinstate an Edwardian rainwater harvesting sump to provide water for toilet flushinguse solar panels to heat water and passive solar gain from a glazed sunroom to heat the lounge and dining areainstall a 37kW ground source heat pump system to heat the building.

Whitelee Holiday Cottages

Whitelee Holiday Cottages offer 4-star self-catering accommodation in the Northumberland National Park. It is a Green Tourism Business Scheme silver award holder.

Whitelee’s renewable energy features include:

a 2.5kW wind turbinesolar panels which heat hot water for the lets photovoltaic panels producing electricitytwo ground source heat pump systems for central heating.

All but £1,000 of the £57,000 project cost came through grant aid from the Northumberland National Park and Energy for Enterprise.

The Hytte

The Hytte is a self-catering holiday cottage within the Northumberland National Park. It is a Green Tourism Business Scheme gold award holder and was a national finalist for the 2009 Sustainable Tourism Award of the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence.The cottage includes only ‘A’ rated appliances and uses low-energy light bulbs throughout.All heating is supplied by a 6kW ground source heat pump which, with a multizoned underfloor heating system, provides three units of heating for every one unit required to drive the pump.An internal electricity meter enables guests to monitor how much energy they are using against average usage. Guests are charged for any units they use above the average at 10p per kWh - this is donated to local charities.The Hytte exceeds standards for insulation, including double-glazing for all windows with energy efficient ‘E’ glass and a turf roof.

Further information

The Energy Saving Trust has a searchable database of available funding.

Business Link provides clear, simple and trustworthy information and advice on improving environmental performance.

Carbon Trust offers interest-free loans to help businesses become more energy efficient.

Envirowise offers free, independent support to save money and become more resource efficient.

Green Start, VisitBritain’s entry-level programme helps tourism businesses understand the range and scope of sustainability, while improving performance and customer satisfaction.

This feature is an edited version of an article by Juergen Uren which originally appeared on VisitBritain’s subscription website,Tourism Insights. Juergen Uren is a business writer and researcher, living in London.